A Pirate's Return
by lord admiral belisarius
Summary: At the age of four, Naruto is driven from the village. He wanders until being found by a group of pirates. After remaining with them for several months, they return to space from their surface leave. Eight years later, he's back.


A Pirate's Return

Chapter 1

In the Beginning...

I'm finally continuing my first fanfic. It's been on my "to do" list but I'm only just getting to it. I hope it is appreciated. Enjoy

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The Sandaime Hokage set aside his hat and planned to retire. It was midnight and a warm breeze came into the room, bringing in the smells and sounds of a city. Crickets chirped in the moonlight. He sighed. The village was less bright now without Naruto. He really loved the kid. He just hoped Naruto wasn't dead as all had proclaimed him to be. A shooting star crossed the night sky, as if in answer to an unspoken question.

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star...

Far above the village lay the clouds. Higher above than even the clouds, air became scarce at those heights, heights where one could see stars and inky blackness. Mankind always wanted to reach the sky and then the stars itself. In the darkness of space, a metal object hung suspended as it orbited the world.

Inside a room, heads were illuminated by the glow of the various consoles they sat at, secured by straps. In the center of the room was a large glass tube This was the holotank. Being projected in the holotank was the image of a verdant world very similar to an ancient Terra Prima, the cradle of humanity.

Several thing were different, however. For one thing, the gravity of the world was much higher and oxygen rich to a degree that even generations of habitation later, it still had an effect on the human inhabitant's physiology. The inhabitants were also of note. Warfare was still at a medieval level and fights resembling duels of honor were commonplace. Technology was comparable to objects from nearly fourteen-hundred years earlier. The primary military forces were "shinobi," child soldiers raised in military dictatorships with the ability to tap into the latent psychic ability of mankind which was known as "chakra" in this world. The world was officially called TL-T3-Ps7-Po9-V2-568-Engel, but was generally called just plain Engel.

A dusky skinned woman with hair pulled into a short ponytail walked into the room in a skinsuit. Bright red tattoos formed four claw like marks along her cheeks. She was followed by a blond teen in similar attire with tattoos of several black tribal bands around his neck. A straight sword lay sheathed on his back and small flechette subauto was slung around his neck by its sling.

One of the crew members called out, "Officer on deck."

At this everyone in the room unstrapped themselves from their chairs and saluted with a fist over their hearts. Only the magnets in the deck shoes prevented them from floating around in zero gravity environment.

She and the teen saluted back and the woman ordered, "At ease," and addressed the the teen standing a step behind her, "Do you recognize this planet, Naran?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"Which planet is it?"

"My home planet."

"Naran, I need you to go by your old name to help us establish an outpost here. Prime Minister Conrad of Aleutia is personally financing this and will clear us from the bounty records for rendering this service."

"Got it Cap'n."

"Naran!"

"Yes..."

"You're now Naruto Uzumaki, not Naran Ustio."

"Kami, I hate that name. Fishpaste Spiral, seriously. Could I please go by Naran Ustio? Pretty please with a cherry on top?"

"I could consider it based upon what happens on the planet."

"Thank you very much!"

"Heh, this reminds me about when we picked you up."

8 Years Previously

A much younger Naruto ran through the woods. He heard dogs barking behind him and crawled into the roots of a massive tree in the forest of Konoha. He wedged himself between the roots. His breathing slowed to a crawl.

It was a dark night with no visible stars or moon. The forest became scarier as the adrenaline running in his veins heightened his senses. The crunch of leaves and twigs underfoot reached his ears. His heart pounded and he curled into a ball. He saw the light of lanterns and heard voices.

"Hey, you see the demon brat?"

"Nah. The trail leads to somewhere around here. Shit man, I really should have brought a few hounds."

"Fuckin' hell, man. You forget everything."

"Well, I'll be damned. Anyway, let's go back before some of those ninjas find out."

The footsteps receded to the background and Naruto remained hidden for several minutes. He relaxed and crawled out and began running, running far from the hellhole that was Konoha. Sure, Jiji did try his best. He knew and respected that. However, probability states that out of a group of several hundred-thousand thousand people hating a person, some will be dumb enough to try and attack said person while under the protection of people with superhuman levels of power. Even smaller portion of those are dumb enough to do so and smart or lucky enough to get away with it.

He ran for hours and stumbled, panting into the wasteland at the edge of Konoha. He heard voices and clumsily brought his exhausted body into the expanse of crevasses, canyons, plateaus, and arid cliffs. Naruto braced himself against a wall of solid rock.

He continued downward. He choked on the dust the wind kicked up and was forced to tear off a piece of his now mangled shirt to put over his mouth, as the wind turned it into a storm of dust. Pieces of grit flew into his eyes and so he stumbled on, a four-year old soldiering on with more guts than many grown men could claim to have.

He continued on to the voices and tripped over a rock. He tumbled and skidded over the unyielding ground. There was a snap as his ankle was twisted into an unnatural position. The last he remembered was ploughing into someone as he tumbled down the slope into the crevasse.

Naruto awoke to find himself in a cot with a splint on both his right wrist and left ankle. There was something resembling an IV drip at the side of the cot with the tube embedded into a vein in his forearm. He looked around from his prone position. The cot was in a building made of corrugated sheet metal shaped into a half of a tube. A fan at one end of the building kept it cool. There were several other empty cots in the building and a desk with four large cabinets next to it. A man sat at the desk, alternating between writing with a ballpoint pen and tapping it on the lightweight, metal surface of the desk. A string of lights hung from the ceiling and gave the room adequate lighting. Naruto lay back into the white sheets and pillow of the cot and staired at the metal ceiling.


End file.
